COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN HOT AIR AND INFRARED DRYING OF PARBOILED RICE: KINETICS AND QUALITIES ASPECTS

The objectives of this study were to analyze the effects of drying employing three different heat sources on drying kinetics and to evaluate qualities of parboiled rice after drying. Drying temperature was varied between 60 and 100C. Power of infrared (IR) heat source was fixed at 1,000 and 1,500W and air flow rate was fixed at 1.00.2m/s. The three drying strategies composed of hot air (HA), IR and combined HA+IR drying. The experimental results were simulated using various equilibrium moisture content models and the mathematical drying model for prediction of drying kinetics and evaluation of effective diffusion coefficient (D-eff) followed by Fick's law of diffusion. The results revealed that D-eff values of HA and IR drying were in the range of 10(-12)-10(-11)m(2)/s and relatively depended on temperature. For quality evaluation, conclusions reached that head rice yield using HA+IR drying had the highest value, while yellowness and whiteness of the parboiled rice are significantly affected by drying condition (P > 0.05).